Prior art gas pilots, igniters, or torches generally do not provide acceptable performance in high velocity fuel/air streams, since the pilot flame is often blown out by the high velocity flow stream before ignition can occur. It is desirable to use a variety of fuel gases since fuel costs and availability require this flexibility. Prior art gas pilots and igniters operate over a very narrow range of air and gas flow rates and pressures and perform very poorly with lower BTU content fuel gases. This eliminates many available fuel sources from use in gas pilots or igniters. It is also necessary for prior art gas pilots or igniters to be operated with an extremely rich fuel/air mixture which frequently results in fouled spark plugs.
Thus, there is a need to provide a high velocity gas pilot-igniter which will operate reliably in high velocity flow streams without being blown out by the high velocity flow. There is also a need to operate on very lean fuel-air mixtures without flameout and to burn dirty or low BTU content gases without flameout. It is also desirable for the gas pilot-igniter to tolerate fluctuating fuel pressures or fuel qualities, to ensure good fuel-air mixing, and produce good flame strength for a variety of fuel gases.